LITMIR.BIZ

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left her side all day. And though the paramedics had found her physically unharmed, Kerry realized her daughter had been traumatized.

      “She just needs time to get over this, Mom. We all do.”

      Enola briefly closed her eyes and Kerry realized her mother was still trying to deal with the guilt she felt over allowing Peggy to slip away unnoticed.

      Rising from her chair, Kerry patted her mother’s shoulder. “I wish you would quit blaming yourself, Mom. None of this is your fault. Peggy has pulled disappearing acts on me before. It just so happened that this time she wandered farther off than she’d intended.”

      Enola sighed. “She’s only three, Kerry. She doesn’t understand the dangers. She wants to see everything. Learn about everything. I should have known not to turn my back. Even for a second.”

      Kerry shook her head. “Mom, that’s ridiculous. No child can be watched that closely. And maybe in the long run, this horrible experience has taught her not to stray from the house or yard.”

      “I hope you’re right. But it’s heartbreaking to see my granddaughter so quiet and withdrawn.”

      Looping her arm through her mother’s, she urged her toward the kitchen. “Peggy is brave. Like her grandmother and great-grandmother Crow. She’ll get through this. Now come on and let’s eat.”

      The two women made their way back to the small kitchen where Enola had prepared pinto beans, corn bread and wilted salad. Inside the room, they were greeted with the aroma of cooked food joined by the scents of cut grass and sweet lilac wafting through the open screen door.

      While her mother took a seat at the dining table, Kerry went to the cabinet to fill two tall glasses with iced tea. When a knock sounded at the front of the house, the two women exchanged glances.

      “I’ll go see who it is,” Kerry said to Enola. “You go ahead and eat. It’s probably just another neighbor wanting to make sure Peggy is okay.”

      Not bothering to hunt for her shoes, Kerry padded barefoot over the cool linoleum until she reached the front screen door. Since no one was standing directly in view, she pushed it open and stepped onto the porch.

      “Hello Kerry.”

      The deep voice hit her before she spotted him standing at the south end of the porch. Slowly she turned to see the man who had continued to linger in her thoughts today.

      “Hello,” she said quietly as he walked toward her.

      Although he was dressed casually in jeans and boots and a pale blue polo shirt, she felt sloppy in comparison. Her white shorts were stained with tiny splotches of blue paint and the red T-shirt topping them had been washed so many times it had turned the color of a half-ripe watermelon. Greeting her neighbors in such a getup was one thing, but letting Jared Colton catch her like this was quite another.

      “I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” he said as his eyes roamed appreciatively over her face, then lowered to her bare brown legs. “I just happened to be in the neighborhood this evening and I thought I’d check to see how Peggy is doing.”

      There it was again, Kerry thought, that strange feeling of being exposed in front of this man. What was it about him, she wondered. She’d been around nice-looking men before. But none of them had affected her like this one. Not even Peggy’s father.

      His dark bronze features were rough-hewn, but classic male. The strong, hawkish nose, carved cheekbones and black hair edging over the back of his collar were distinctly Native American. Only his gray eyes and the faint shadow of a beard hinted that there might be white blood flowing through his veins.

      She tried not to stare at his striking face or the long, strong body attached to it as she replied, “We were about to eat supper. Peggy is asleep right now. But you’re welcome to join us.”

      Kerry was trying to be polite, but Jared could see that the last thing she wanted him to do was join her and her mother for supper. The fact left him feeling vaguely hollow. Though he didn’t understand why. There were plenty of women in town that would be thrilled to find him on their front steps. Once he left here all he had to do was pick up his cell phone and make a call to one of them. And maybe he’d do that, he promised himself. It was foolish to let this single mother change his normal behavior.

      Giving her his best smile, he shook his head. “Thank you, Kerry, but I wouldn’t want to impose.”

      Disappointment flashed through her, catching her completely off guard. She didn’t want to entertain this man, she silently argued with herself. It would be like inviting a stick of dynamite into the house. And she’d already had too many explosions in her life to risk another one.

      Feeling incredibly awkward, she tucked her bobbed hair behind her ears and darted a glance toward his face. “I hope you’ve had a chance to get rested up from yesterday’s ordeal,” she said.

      He shrugged as though the part he’d played in Peggy’s rescue had been superfluous. Kerry could only wonder if the gesture was an attempt to appear humble or if these past years had honestly changed him into a more modest man than the Jared Colton she remembered.

      “I’m fine,” he said with a quick grin. “What about you? How are you holding up?”

      It was a beautiful spring evening. The sun had dipped below the bare hills that skirted the edge of town and a warm breeze was blowing the scent of honeysuckle across the porch. If this man had been anyone except Jared Colton she might have enjoyed having male company for a change. She might have invited him to take a seat and drink a glass of tea with her. Instead, she was afraid to trust him and afraid to trust herself.

      “I’m okay. It’s Peggy and Mom that worry me. Peggy is—well, she’s hardly spoken to anyone today. And she’s eaten even less than she’s talked. Mother blames herself, of course. I’m not sure how to help either one of them.”

      “I hate to hear that. I was hoping Peggy would be the sort of child that would bounce right back.” A rueful grin suddenly twisted his lips. “I mean, there’s not many little girls her age that would have enough courage to go exploring a deep dark place like she went into. Especially without another child with her.”

      His remarks surprised Kerry. She’d not expected him to understand anything about the way a child’s mind worked. Especially a little female mind. But then females were his specialty; he ought to know how their minds worked, she quickly reminded herself.

      “Peggy is very adventurous. I used to be proud of the fact that she was so curious about the world around her. But now I’m wondering if that curiosity is a curse. When I asked her why she left the yard, she told me that she went hunting birds with Fred. I don’t even know if she understands what the term hunting means. No one that I know of has talked about hunting birds or anything else to her.”

      She looked weary, Jared thought. The harrowing hours she’d gone through yesterday and last night would have been enough to break any young mother. Much less one without the support of a husband. And suddenly he wished he had the right to try to comfort her with touches and whispered words.

      “She’s probably heard someone refer to Fred as a hunting dog,” Jared suggested. “Or it could have come from television.”

      Kerry nodded. “You could be right. Either way, I’m wondering now how to keep this from happening again. I don’t want to get rid of the dog. Losing her buddy would only make matters worse.”

      His black brows pulled together in a thoughtful frown. “I don’t have any kids, Kerry, so I’m the last person to give you advice. But I used to be a kid with a dog and I know losing him would have broken my heart.”

      Hearing one of Black Arrow’s most prominent playboys discuss children and dogs and broken hearts was as unsettling to Kerry as the potent sensuality that swirled around him. Because it made him more of a man somehow. A man that she could care about.

      Alarmed by the soft thoughts running through her head, she glanced away from him and breathed

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